I may have already linked to this inspiring blog, but I'll do it again. Take a couple minutes to view her vacation slideshow and tell me you don't want to also go driving around Europe and eat luscious chocolate cake and sip cappucino by the ocean. Wow.

I've just discovered the radio feature on itunes. How fun and so many stations to choose from. Just when I was trying to not spend much time on the computer.
I did some weeding and turning over soil in the garden tonight while the sun was going down. Farley helped me by dancing around on the soil whenever people walked by. Got a compost too and it is set up now.

This plant appeared suddenly the other day. No, sorry, the plant didn't, only the flowers. I don't know what it is, but this picture was taken a few days ago and today the flower has become quite big. Doesn't smell though.

Not the best picture, but there's a lot of lavender here. A big bush of it. It smells nice and I should probably do something with it before it dies off.

Ok, next plant:
This is the little tomato plant that could. We bought it when it was all scraggly and small, and now a few weeks later look at it! Its huge! Just waiting patiently for it to make me some tomatoes. The plant actually smells strongly of tomatoes, so I don't know if this is a good sign or not. You may be able to just make out a tiny basil plant poking it's head out underneath. It has been dwarfed by mister tomato.

There's a lovely lily plant in our backyard which in the last week has started blossoming. Ed and I came home one evening and there were a bunch of buds in the midst of starting to open, in the morning many of them had fully opened. The flowers smell sweet and like Hawaii. I love how plants are sneaky and just when you think a plant has nothing to offer and wonder why someone had planted it in the first place, all of a sudden it says "hey, look at me!"

Aya Kato. I spent quite a while looking at this artist's site. Her images are disturbing and beautiful. Very unusual. Click through the illustrations, you'll be amazed.

I love the artwork of Junko Mizuno-lots of skulls, weird animals. She's put out a collection of Japanese manga style renditions of fairy tales, one is called Cinderalla, another is Hansel and Gretel.

Ed and I went to see Batman Begins in the Imax theatre last night in Langley. It was a neat experience to see a feature film on that big of a screen. I'd only ever seen short space and shark movies in Imax. We passed the Walnut Grove Community centre on the way. I'm always on the hunt for good community centres and when I searched online for this one, here's what I found (click through the other pictures too). Pretty nice hey? It looks really open and bright and what could be nicer than swimming while watching the sunset. The great thing is that it is only a 15 minute drive from our house. I'll give a full report when I've actually visited the place.

I've taken advantage of what little sun we've been offered lately. Ed and I ventured out to Whonnock Lake today (take the virtual tour!), a 15 minute drive from our house. This is a smaller lake with some boggy bits at the edge, but far warmer than the water at Allouette Lake where we went last weekend and almost froze to death under the threatening rain clouds. Anyway, we had a nice swim, I enjoyed a Drumstick ice cream and then we headed home.
I am astounded at the amount of forested areas and outdoor recreation options that Maple Ridge has.

Okay, so Ed and I are in our new house now-two weeks it has been. Why do we feel like we're on vacation and this is someone else's place? I'm wandering around thinking I'd better be careful with everything because we'll be giving it back.
I'm home sick from work today-first sick day I've taken at this job. I've had so much sleep and it has really helped. Our pets are overjoyed that I'm here hanging out with them.
I haven't had much of a chance to enjoy our backyard, so I think I'll go out there and knit or read one of my ten or so books I have out from the library. It just doesn't seem right to watch tv on a nice day.

I'm enjoying some of Snoop Dogg's music lately: Signs (with Justin Timberlake) and Drop it like its Hot. The songs are so catchy and pretty cheesy but good for a breezy summer day.
I listened to Joanna Newsom the other day and was disappointed-I wanted to hear her music after reading the article about her in Venus a while ago. As a fan of the harp, I figured I'd like her, but she sounds like she's trying to be an old woman (I confirmed this suspicion by reading some reviews).

I really enjoy reading Drawn (where I found the link in the previous post). The site is updated all the time which is great.
The newest Bust magazine just came out and I've already perused the music pages and downloaded songs from both Amerie and Scout Niblett who reminds me of Cat Power and Feist-two of my favorites.
Ed and I are moving in much much less than a week and although it should show in the amount of packing we should have done, it doesn't. I'd much rather sit and download music like a lazy thing in front of the computer. I know I will curse myself on Thursday for this.

I've never run across the work of Souther Salazar but I love it. I think of J. Otto Seibold and really crazy children's book illustrations from books my Mom had saved from the 50's and 60's.

I love this pillow (just the right amount of pretty and creepy all in one) found on fabulous Morning Craft. If I happen to run across a spare 80 bucks American I'll buy it.

Ed and I took Farley to have his hair cut today on Main Street and now he looks like Bambi crossed with a terrier, his legs are so long and gangly and sort of fly out to the side when he's running. Anyway, on the way back home after stopping in a few of my favorite clothing stores, we came across a fairly new electric bike store called Voltage Cycles and although not in the market for an electric bike found that they have tons of awesome toys and t-shirts including a bunch of both from Gama-Go. I bought a Gama-Go t-shirt a while back without knowing who they were just because I liked the little ninja cat on it and then was in search for some of their other designs. I was so happy today when I saw them all at this store. I bought a shirt with a big line art dragon breathing fire on it. They also have a bunch of Threadless shirts as well which are hard to find and are all designed by different people competing for best shirt design.

I won't be eating another KFC veggie burger. Word has gotten out through PETA that they torture their chickens. I read both Fast Food Nation and The Food Revolution: How Your Diet can Help Save Your Life and Heal the World a couple of years ago and somehow (naively) thought that because of the exposure that many fast food companies would have changed their practices. Some have, but looks like KFC hasn't and is instead just evil.

There is something tasty and new in the fast food kingdom. KFC is doing a test run of a vegetarian "chicken" burger here in Vancouver. Ed and I tried it and it was very flavourful and a bit crunchy. The patty was much like the Schneider's veggie "chicken" patty which is breaded (and tastes real good with cheese melted on it with pasta sauce over top).

I've been on a big running kick for the past week. I've ran about four times and am loving it. Its really been lifting my spirits to go outside and do a few laps in the park while the evening sun is still glowing. Of course having my Ipod Shuffle along doesn't hurt either.

I am playing with my new Ipod Shuffle that Ed just gave me for my birthday! I love it and am fascinated at how tiny it is and how much information it can hold. I just love miniature things.